Did you know you can filter incoming mail in Gmail based on the sender (and other things, too)?  This is a great feature and one of the main reasons I use Gmail exclusively for all my safelist needs.  I have an account for my list emails and another for my contact emails.

Yes, I use safelists!  They really are effective, especially if your target audience is online marketers, especially new online marketers, or newbies.  These are the biggest users of safelists, and the ones most likely to read safelist emails.  It’s a great market to tap in order to put more eager, purchasing customers on your own mailing list.

The best safelists are those that require you to read other members’ emails in order to get enough credits to send your own.  Obviously, these are the only types that give you really any chance of having your emails read.  Without that requirement, there is no incentive for the email list member to do anything but go into his list email account occasionally and delete all.

But that means reading hundreds of emails every week, or even every day!  Or does it?  If you’re smart and you use Gmail, maybe not.  Use the incoming mail filter feature to sort your incoming mail by sender:

First set up a label for each safelist to which you belong – labels/manage labels/create new label.

Then filter incoming mail from each safelist to its label – select a message/drop down from “More Actions” to “filter messages like these.”

Then, anytime you need more credits in a particular safelist, just go choose that label and start reading and clicking for credits.  Note that these items are still in your inbox, so don’t delete your entire inbox until you’re sure you won’t need those sorted items anymore.

Learn more excellent tricks for safelists users in this handy little eBook, Ultimate Safelist Survival by Michael Cobb and Soren Jordansen.  It costs just $9.95 and it’s well worth it if you’re new or just don’t have a lot to spend on marketing.  Safelists could give you your start, but most people don’t use them effectively.